This makes me feel very down...

[Smokin Joe]

I stopped flushing the toilet unnecessraly, but Mrs Smokin Joe got a bit huffy one day when she found a large turd floating in the pan. I did explain that it was biodegradable and therefore ok, but typical woman, she just doesn't get the environmental message.

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

Do you recyclers take care to check that your recycling farcility does not just package up your plastic, pop it on a huge container ship, whose fuel emissions are currently almost totally unregulaed, sail it all the way to china, where they use energy sourced from coal burning powerstations to turn it into high grip road surfacing that they pop onto another huge ship and sail back to us?

Most recycling, especially of plastics consumes more energy than producing new does.

Do recycle, but don't let yourself be hoodwinked.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Good point Jacomus. I used to pick up trailer loads of empty watercooler bottles from High Wycombe in an artic. They were delivered to a tiny yard in Perry Barr near Birmingham where they were unloaded, crushed and put on pallets. I'd then go back in, pick up a trailer load of crushed bottles and take them back to our yard in Wednesbury. There they were offloaded and put onto a container which I'd then drive down to Felixstowe docks for shipment to China. That's a lot of diesel before it's even got aboard the ship!

 

[domtyler]

Good point Jacomus. I used to pick up trailer loads of empty watercooler bottles from High Wycombe in an artic. They were delivered to a tiny yard in Perry Barr near Birmingham where they were unloaded, crushed and put on pallets. I'd then go back in, pick up a trailer load of crushed bottles and take them back to our yard in Wednesbury. There they were offloaded and put onto a container which I'd then drive down to Felixstowe docks for shipment to China. That's a lot of diesel before it's even got aboard the ship!

Keeps you in work though?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Well, that's true, I suppose. Although nowadays I just potter around the West Midlands collecting pallets of "proper" freight. Most of it has come in from China in containers though.
I read somewhere that it's now cheaper to have new containers made in China than to ship the empty ones back. I suppose there's only so much stuff you can export when you don't have a manufacturing industry any more, but I still find that rather depressing.

 

[Dave5N]

I was trying to support the OP!

I think the whole planet is in a right state, and I do get very concerned for the legacy we are leaving for our children and grandchildren.

It seems to me that there are so many small things that so many of us can do; in concert would make an impact.

• Turn lights off in rooms (at work and at home) when the room is empty;

• Only boil enough water to make a pot of tea, rather than fill the kettle up;

• Firmly decline the offer of a plastic carrier bag at Sainsbury's;

• Turn the central heating down a click, and cuddle up (or, if desperate, use a hot-water bottle!)

• If your journey is under 2 miles, walk or cycle.

• If your journey is over 2 miles, cycle

• Don't run water down the drain needlessly when washing or washing up;

• Don't flush the lavatory unless you must.

• Recycle stuff like mad. Only chuck stuff away if you really must.

But it's all been said before. I recon that about 80-90% of my colleagues and relatives have no environmental concern at all.

• Stop using depleted uranium weapons
• Stop starting wars that leave oil fields burning
• Stop sending rockets into space

 

[Jaded]

James AC

Great post.

Nothing you have posted is difficult to do.

The hard part is to understand, then believe, then to act on is that you don't need a Porsche Gayenne to take the kids to school in.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

... Porsche Gayenne ...

I can't believe I hadn't thought of that!

 

[Over The Hill]

In my 47 years on this planet I have managed to get through the following - all of which were going to bring the planet to a sudden end:
The population explosion
The arms race
The coming of an ice age
Aids
I have managed to get through them all quite well and am sure I will get through rising sea levels if they come (I will ask the Dutch what to do) A rise it temperature (not sounding bad to me!).

I am really fed up with stupid stories like this coming out of someones back bedroom and reaching some stupid conclusion (Usually that we are all going to die).

Take this report (yes i read it) nothing in it is saying the world will end or anything like it.

Will everyone stop having a silly knee jerk reaction to everything by telling me to drive a smaller car or stop using a plastic bag.

Go off and look at the facts- they are the climate has never been static IT CHANGES. Romans grew grapes in England,Tudors skated on the frozen Thames if ether happen today someone would jump up and say that was as a result of global warming and we are all going to die. We did not and we will not.

Relax and stop reading that crap. It is no better than the Daily Mail.